The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1887-10-22
SAVED BY A KISS.
Ei.MA GRIFFIN AWAKENED N
HER COFFIN.
And She Bi1>hrd and smiled when
The Carr-s was Given.

aged 10 years, months and 6 DAYS.
The words were engraved upon Il sill
yer plate, but there was no coffin under
them. Mrs. Purroy, an elderly lady,
visiting friends living on Clinton ave
nue., Alameda, but whose home is in
Brooklyn, y. Y, looked with an air IF
mingled pride and reverence upon the
carving, for her name was once Elma
Griffin. and the coffin that was made to
hold her remains.
''On my nineteenth birthday" she
said, my mother invited party of ac-
quaintances to our house to celebrate
the day. We lived some distance out
side OF Williamsburg, as it was then,
and the ground was Il little soft and
boggy. One of my friends remembered
this as she was about to start for her
home with her brother, and she laugh
ingly congratulated me on being housed
already and having no occasion to
brave the swamp. / was wild young
girl III those days, and L declared at
once that would go with them and re-
turn alone. Everybody present tried to
d:ssuade Ec except the girls brother.
We started, and when we reached nv
friends house | WAS conscious that nv
feet were quite wet, and that a disagree
able chill had crcpt over me, but | lie
cllncd an invitation to go in, and went
away at once. OF course. Rob-the
brother, / mcan-came with me, and
somehow [ forgot the cold and damp as
walked home.
81 think We must have talked for n long
time as we stood on my uncles door
step, Cor suddenly Rob-mv escort. l
mean = said: 'Elma, your face is very
pale. Have [ kept YOU standing here
too long, He talked to me for ten min
utcs after that, and wished ne good
night and left me. rang the bell, and
when my mother opened the door told
her what might have known an hour
sooner, If | had given it a thought, that
1 was really i'll. She hurried me to bed
Immediately, and when she came to call
mo the following morning she looked
very anxious. by noon | was delirious,
but | could hear the doctor tell my
mother had typhoid fever, and that he
didno. hold ont much hope for my recov-
cry. | knew that my mother was weep
ing, but | was always a selfish o., and
L col.i only cry ont: Robert Robert,
Where is Robert. 2 and they told me.
hardly thinking that | hcar,l them, that
Robert hal been suddenly called upon
W start for California early that morn
ing, and had not even heard of my i'll
ness. He sent IA letter to me, however,
but [ dill not see it until many weeks
later.
81 grew rapidly worse, and gradually
= 81
passed from me- | fancy L had a GER
tain consciousness, but not of matters
around me. / was in another state Of
being. in which the person acting and
peaking-always strangely speaking
was myself, and yet not myself. Then
came an utter blank, from which
awokc, after nearly three weeks of obliv-
ion, to see my mother and the doctor
standing by my bedside. The doctor
said the crisis was past, and l should
probably recover, but did not feel any
interest in what he was talking about.
"The quiet days of cOnvalescence fol-
lowed, and the doctor, seeing that was
very weak, regarded me seriously, and
warned my mother that relapse should
be guarded against l used at that
time. to, fall into curious physical
conditions that l suppose We're tran
ccs, in which knew all that was going
on round me, bit from which ibid not
care 10 arouse myself by moving or
speaking. These periods lasted longer
and longer, but they were not observed,
and rs they were rather pleasant than
otherwise l said nothing about them.
"One morning l awoke from what
seemed to be natural sleep, and lay
with my eyes closed listening to sounds
that / could not at first interpret; but
slowly the knowledge came to me that
my mother was sobbing beside my bed.
l triel to ask her why She was grieving,